coming up on r t the un general assembly weighs in on syria's chemical weapons all indications show that deep seated tensions between the u.s. and iran may now be unwinding the latest updates on today's events ahead. in the u.s. synthetic marijuana is usually sold with an odd or goofy brand name but what it can do to the human body is no laughing matter a look at the terrible effects of these substances in a special r t investigation and a columbia university professor attacked by more than twenty people all because they thought he was muslim will look at this case and whether the trend of islamophobia is growing in the u.s. all later in the show.

it's tuesday september twenty fourth five pm in washington d.c. i'm lynn neary david in you're watching our t.v. we begin today with the un general assembly world leaders from one hundred and ninety three countries have descended on new york city for their annual meeting this week this morning president obama addressed the assembly and push for a u.n. security council resolution that enforces serious cooperation however syria was not the only foreign policy issue on the president's agenda he also addressed nuclear proliferation and iran to discuss more on the highlights coming out of the u.n. today i'm joined now by artie's on a stasi a church who is in new york following all the developments on associate thanks so much for joining me so obama spoke this morning for about fifteen minutes and he did spend a good portion of that time talking about syria tell us more about that address and what he had to say well i mean there are certainly a lot of foreign policy issues touched upon but syria is at the top of the agenda mainly. most importantly for russia and the u.s.

as we continue negotiating on a possible security council resolution but in terms of barack obama's speech he certainly concentrated on syria and putting the chemical weapons under international control as well as possible of far between ties between the u.s. and iran as well as the possible future of these really palestinian negotiations but when it comes to syria he did in fact push for a strong resolution to come out of the united nations security council something that the security council has been working on around the clock and continues to do so as we speak but obama does continue to say that a strong resolution needs to take place so that syria remains well chemical weapons free in the time to come take a listen the syrian government took a first step by giving an accounting of its. now there must be a strong security council resolution to verify that this regime is keeping its commitments

and there must be consequences if they fail to do so if we cannot agree even on this that it will show that the united nations is incapable of enforcing the most basic of international laws. well we have to keep in mind that the mean opinion between the united states that remains divided between the u.s. and russia is whether or not any force should be used if syria fails to comply with any resolutions to come out of the united nations russia believes this should not be the case the u.s. thinks that sanctions and possible force may be necessary if assad does not comply with any document to come out of the u.s. we have to say that as we speak the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov is meeting with john kerry discussing syria particularly we will bringing be bringing our viewers the latest on that as that meeting wraps up how soon we can expect some

kind of tangible results remain to be seen many analysts are hopeful that something may come out as early as this week america will lots of differences to work out we've just learned that president obama and iranian president hassan rouhani will not meet at the general assembly is there any indication as to why that has happened well you know us schedules between leaders are formed out way ahead before they actually gather here in new york city other was in fact a lot of speculation as to whether or not any kind of shape or form an official meeting might take place between obama and rouhani or some kind of you know meeting in the hall or a handshake or nod or a wink at least we know that the official meeting is not taking place we do know however that kerry is meeting with his a rainy counterpart the reunion foreign minister later on this week and this is a big breakthrough in the end it's only because it is an indication of the relationship kind of warming up and they're sitting down for further negotiations

so no meeting taking place between obama and rouhani but certainly with us signs we've been seeing coming from obama namely earlier today when he was speaking about iran saying that a diplomatic door remains open if iran chooses to walk through it a better relationship might ensue take a listen. on what he said had to say about that. we should be able to achieve a resolution that respects the rights of the iranian people while giving the world confidence that the iranian program is peaceful but to succeed conciliatory words will have to be matched by actions that are transparent and verifiable after all it's the iranian government's choices that have led to the conference of sanctions that are currently in place so obviously the u.s. is waiting for iran to not just talk the talk but walk the walk and we're going to have to wait and see in the days to come exactly what iran has to say on on the

possibility of making this relationship better and so rowhani is also addressing the u.n. general assembly tonight later in the evening what can we expect out of that speech well let me read he's actually addressing the united nations right now as we speak and this is something that was highly anticipated because certainly as we know over the last several years mahmoud ahmadinejad the fiery feisty controversial iranian leader has always consistently caused much scandal here in new york city when he came here to address the u.n. g.a. certainly lots of controversial statements a lot of anti-u.s. statements and we do know that rouhani has a much more mellow approach in a sense at least on words that we're seeing for now when it comes to the relationship with the west so this speech is in fact expected to be a follow up to what barack obama said earlier because it seems that both countries are ready to continue some kind of better negotiations we do know that the rainy

and foreign minister said earlier this week that iran is ready to return to negotiations the six party talks so certainly this is the speech that's being made today is expected to show that we could see a better dialogue between the u.s. and iran in the time to come well thank you for all of those developments we will check in with you later for more of that was our team correspondent honest. it wasn't too long ago that we learned through a series of disclosures that the u.s. national security agency had been spying on both the leaders and citizens of several countries one of those countries brazil took these revelations very seriously so much so that brazilian president dilma rousseff actually canceled a state visit to washington d.c. earlier this month and president rousseff didn't let her message die easily and fact she had the world watching this morning as she addressed the very issue in her opening speech at the u.n. general assembly artie's sam sachs as more it didn't take long for the recent

n.s.a. leaks to dog president obama in the united states at today's u.n. general assembly debate in new york city or maybe very first speaker the day was brazilian president dilma rousseff who recently canceled a meeting with president obama and devoted a third of her speech to bashing mrs mask global surveillance operations stem the flow of what we have the four was a surprise and is a serious case of violation of human rights and civil liberties a case of invasion and capture of confidential secret information pertaining to business activities and above all a case of disrespect to national sovereignty the national sovereignty of my country we have to let the u.s. government know about a protest by demanding explanations apologies and guarantees that such acts so procedures will never be repeated again she even went a step further and urged the u.n.

to join brazil in building a new internet framework that protects the privacy and sovereignty of all nations as well as you up example is ill will put forth the poses and that establishing a multilateral civil framework. full internet governance and use as well as measures to ensure the effect is protection of the data and information trafficking through the internet heading into today's u.n. general assembly debate there have been a series of diplomatic dust ups between the white house and various south american nations all since edward snowden began disclosing the n.s.a.'s activities on that continent there was last week's tussle over air space in which venice wailin president nicolas maduro claimed the united states committed a serious offense by not granting permission for his plane to enter u.s. airspace in route to china the united states said the bennetts whale it didn't provide enough notice of course there was also an incident last july when bolivian

president evo morales had his plane forced to land in vienna what he called an imperial skyjacking after was believed that the plane may be harboring edward snowden it wasn't and latin america grew enraged by the actions with cuba calling it an unacceptable and unjustifiable act that offends latin america and the caribbean an ecuadorian president rafael correa urging fellow south american leaders to quote take action the course foreign minister ricardo patino sat down with r t to talk about how president obama has handled the n.s.a. spying scandal and the sequel bhogle now in the gulf yet he hasn't apologized to anyone not even his so-called friends or his so-called enemy it looks as if his friends aren't really his friends in fact his friends are so trustworthy that he has to spy on them i think brazilian president dilma rousseff was very brave in her recent decision but i was very happy to hear she would suspend her trip to the united states out of dignity it's impossible that someone can spy on me and then

turn around and invite me to come visit them it's disrespectful not only is it disrespectful but it's a violation of international laws the very same laws that protect international communities. ultimately though the white house wasn't interested in addressing the n.s.a. controversy is nearly forty five minute speech today before the u.n. president obama didn't mention the n.s.a. one time. but despite this silence the white house understands there may be economic consequences for its mass spying on both hostile and friendly nations brazilian president dilma rousseff canceling her planned october meeting with the white house may have cost a boeing a four billion dollars fighter jet contract and other latin american nations like bolivia ecuador and venezuela all carrying on very important trade relations with the united states that could be in danger as more n.s.a. secrets are exposed reporting from the white house in washington d.c. same sex r.t.

. and now moving on to a mishap of epic proportions believe it or not in january of one nine hundred sixty one the united states almost nuked itself according to a recently unclassified document obtained by the guardian the us air force was dramatically close to dropping a pair of hydrogen bombs over goldsboro north carolina the report reveals that the bombs each carried a four megaton payload making them two hundred and sixty times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on hiroshima and nagasaki during world world war two according to the documents the two atomic bombs were released after a b. fifty two plane carrying them went into a tailspin during a routine test flight the bombs fell off the carrier and should have debt detonated but they were spared because of one low voltage switch that failed to activate properly and that small malfunction prevented what would have been the most devastating and widespread nuclear damage in history these documents were obtained

by guardian journalist eric schlosser who has been researching the nuclear arms race for an upcoming book through his research schlosser says he's discovered nearly seven hundred incidents like this that took place between one nine hundred fifty and one thousand nine hundred sixty eight and the public has no idea he said the u.s. government has consistently tried to withhold information from the american people in order to prevent questions being asked about their nuclear weapons policy we were told there was no possibility of these weapons accidentally detonating but thanks to schlosser's research we now know that's not the case. it's labeled as popery marked with the faces of popular cartoon characters and sold on store shelves across the country synthetic marijuana is rapidly becoming a public health emergency earlier this month dozens of people flooded into emergency rooms in colorado tennessee kansas and georgia after smoking a bad batch of fake weed and at least three people died just today the mother of

one thousand year old nicole byrd filed a lawsuit in colorado springs against the store that sold her son a fateful batch back in two thousand and eleven however stephanie colbert is not the first mother to experience such a tragedy tomorrow the senate caucus on international narcotics control will hold a hearing on capitol hill to talk about the dangers of these substances but before then our t. correspondent megan lopez brings us the story of three families dealing with the real consequences of synthetic marijuana i had never heard of so-called marijuana and should probably the day after my son died i was at my front and i got a phone call and i was told my son had died and our son is. no different than any other child here from a county he was a straight a student played baseball everything by the book and then unfortunately

you know somebody there introduced him or whatever he got involved in it and it was all downhill from there i bought a bag and i tried it and then i got the. most of them. and then i got my own and then i was smoking like a half and i would go. three families thousands of miles apart but all linked by a dangerous drug these are the stories of tristen cancer an athlete who was getting ready to has a college emily bauer a seventeen year old known for a funky hair colors and next stop in are the adventurer who loves snowboarding his dog and his family three stories three very different outcomes. it goes by many names as not because climber and mr nice guy spice k two scooby snacks it's also known as synthetic marijuana or more formally synthetic

canal benoit's a designer drug where chemicals are created in a lab in sprayed on herbs and sold in stores synthetic because it's meant to mimic the effects of actual marijuana these drugs can be purchased in gas stations and convenience stores cleverly marked as potpourri with a label on the back that reads not first human consumption but don't let the label fool you that's exactly what this product is for just ask the parents of tristen cancer their son began experimenting with drugs when he was fifteen after years of trying to get clean he turned to synthetic canal benoit's as a safe alternative because not only is it easily accessible this stuff doesn't show up on drug tests. teen her mother finding the packages the empty packages and we don't know what they were they were just their son's way to get a high a high that turned out to be more dangerous than tristen originally thought kristen

told us had numerous occasions where he was in the in a vehicle with one of the people not driving but he had become a most power lies and couldn't move under the influence of synthetic marijuana he's now in rehab and on the road to recovery he's planning to go to college in the spring but for him lee bowers family recovery wasn't as easy emily had been smoking synthetic. marijuana for months until one day her body couldn't take it anymore she didn't know where she was she wouldn't make any sense is generous bumping into walls they found that she had multiple strokes that damaged seventy percent of her brain and told her family she would remain in a vegetative state what was that moment like when you decided that you were going to stop and that a haitian they were going to stop the two yeah that was the hardest one i mean of not much more that's a good job. i have come alive and i know at first emily had no control of her

arms or legs and she was blind now she's back at school and learning to walk again the family believes emily's preexisting condition combined with the synthetic canal benoit almost took their daughter's life where were you getting it from the clear for when one of your friends went to buy it did they make them show it they was it pretty easily accessible now they didn't make them to live here and all. the paranoia anxiety rapid heart rate trouble breathing hallucinations all of these are real effects that doctors have reported in just two thousand and ten alone the drug was linked to over eleven thousand four hundred emergency room visits it's russian roulette you don't know what you're going to get it's a statistic karen doctor knows by heart karen says her son max only trying to synthetic marijuana one time and it cost him his life the store owner actually

talked them into purchasing the product and he was mrs friends who drove him home. smoked it and she dropped him off she said that when he walk into the house he looked fine. i guess a few minutes later he didn't feel so fine and. half an hour later he jumped into his car and drove a hundred miles down the roads and people who are calling nine long months saying there you see a car drive going one hundred miles an hour gallon road weaving in and out of traffic on the wrong side of the road making corners y. and eventually his car landed in a house. and he flew eighty feet through the air and landed in the house and died max's death is a reality the dog in our family confronts every day it's still painful when it's

it's. it's a different life my life is different without masks he was my best friend. my life is completely changed it was a horrible ending to a beautiful life one in nine high school seniors admitting to trying synthetic canal benoit's in two thousand and eleven according to a survey by the university of michigan and karen fears it won't be long before there are more deaths as a result of these dangerous chemicals max was the perfect son he did all the right things he made one mistake and it killed him and if it could happen to max it could happen to anybody at any it in washington meghan lopez r t. and a columbia university professor was assaulted this past saturday while walking in upper manhattan dr prob saying seek and wears

a turban and beard was attacked by multiple suspects who shouted anti muslim statements just before knocking him down and punching him numerous times in the face the new york police department says it is investigating this as a hate crime since nine eleven there have been a spate of attacks in new york and around the country on sikhs who have been mistaken as muslims in fact just last year a white supremacist named wade michael page went on a shooting rampage at a sikh temple in oak creek wisconsin killing six people and wounding four others it's all part of a growing trend toward islam a phobia and you don't have to go all the way to wisconsin to find it right here in washington d.c. numerous elected representatives have said disparaging remarks about islam often as a result of ignorance about the religion i was joined earlier by ybor heem hooper communications director for the council on american islamic relations i first asked him to put the attack on dr prob joad saying into context and talk about how often you see attacks on muslims and sikhs within the united states. members of the sikh

community are often targeted unfortunately because sikh men wear turbans and they often wear very long beards and bigots not being brain surgeons they associate turbans and beards with muslims so we see it quite often we've we've come to the assistance of sikhs who have been attacked on a number of occasions a number of cases in california california elderly sikh men out for a walk beaten shot and killed one of the first deaths after nine eleven was a sikh man shot to death in the aftermath of the nine eleven terror attack so we've seen this unfortunately too often and we saw it in this case as well the individual was called osama in other words osama bin ladden called a terrorist but we see that same day a muslim woman at a pro-democracy rally in times square in new york was similarly called

a terrorist and hit by an individual who was arrested and we're working on that case as well it's it's an unfortunately growing phenomenon and we as a muslim community we're very tiny minority we can't combat or challenge growing islamophobia all by ourselves we have to do it in coalition with others of course and say i'm talking a little bit more about the trend toward a final thought the i know that over twenty states have at least a candidate had passed a bill against adopting shari'a law. is this a rational fear of islam like we growing new and we've seen this in a number of states nationwide where right wing anti muslim extremists in state legislatures take a template promoted by a right wing anti muslim extremist name named david euro shalmi he has a template for these laws they introduce them in the state legislature drum up fear against islam and muslims sometimes they pass sometimes they don't i think they're

really. and is to promote anti muslim hysteria and this is one vehicle for doing it it's like passing a law to outlaw unicorns but if you can scare enough people promoted enough anti muslim hysteria. at least they feel they're having some impact it's a negative impact but that seems to be what they want and of course we hear a lot of anti muslim rhetoric coming from politicians so many of our congressional leaders i remember not too long ago hearing rep peter king call for hearings on the islamization of america and then recently we heard senator lindsey graham talk about the phrase allow akbar let's take a listen to what he said. ahmad far as associated with the war chant it doesn't it's not exclusively owned by al qaeda i've seen people kill al qaeda guys in yellow bar but it is when somebody yells i log far in the mideast i duck it is not like hey how you doing lindsay it is not a you know it is

a war chant so he says it's like uttering a word chant first of all for people that don't know can you explain what this phrase a la barre means god is great it's one of the most common phrases uttered by muslims every time you you pray you're saying it every day. in your daily life you're saying it just say god as senator mccain correctly mentioned when this issue was first promoted by again by the right wing right wing pundits and extremists are constantly manufacturing these false controversies and then it becomes a viral thing on the internet and you know it's utter nonsense but people believe it and they're willing to believe it and and so the follow up to that is how does rhetoric like this you know coming from politicians really impact the way that americans are formulating their or their attitudes towards the muslim american community or our research consistently shows that up to one third of americans have

active hostility. towards islam now that's not a majority but that's a pretty sizable minority and we find through our research that it's almost always due to ignorance of islam and muslims i got to hate call from a lady yesterday and she was spouting these lies about islam about muslims and i said look i'm telling you that what you're basing your beliefs on are lies are you willing to change what you believe said no i said well if you're not willing to acknowledge that what you're basing your beliefs are lies what can i do you know i commend you for trying to convert all of these individual people we don't have a lot of time left but i want to get your thoughts on the somali the smally incident that happened it seems that a lot of somali americans here in the united states are really trying to disassociate themselves now from terrorism they're going to great lengths to do that i just want to get your thoughts on you know basically what do you think this really says about the fear that muslim americans have about you know the kind of

backlash that's you know might be coming well i think we're in that in times of crisis we're less concerned about the backlash and we're more concerned about our nation's security like after the boston marathon bombings there were some backlash incidents but the main concern is stop these kinds of things from happening repudiate any acts of terrorism in any form by whoever does it there's no cause that can justify these kinds of acts and then worry about any potential backlash absolutely well thank you so much for coming on and and giving us all your insight we'll have to have you back to neighboring hooper communications director for the council on american islamic relations thank you thank you. just over a week ago twelve people were killed and eight others injured when government contractor aaron alexis opened fire at the u.s. navy yard and the lenses and fire trucks fled to the scene last monday as the country tried to figure out what was happening inside the country's oldest maybe

installation now while the city of washington commended its fire and e.m.'s departments in their response to the shooting a recent investigation has called into question whether more could have been done artie's justin justin underhill has more. mv yard shooting officer scott williams was shot multiple times in both legs the ambulance that transported him to washington hospital center did not have a paramedic on board two minutes after he was placed in the ambulance dispatchers reported. that like you know maybe even if the baby but we. haven't. got it however there should have been medic units available from the two closest stations the navy yard medic unit seven and eight but these had both been downgraded meaning they were operating without a paramedic paramedic units had to be brought in from maryland the fire department has repeatedly struggled to provide timely emergency care as dozens of paramedics

have resigned and ambulances are in disrepair this has been an ongoing issue for years that i don't believe the city has adequately solved in august d.c. announced the hiring of sixty new fire and e.m.'s cadets along with nine paramedics by the end of the year but even with the addition of nine paramedics d.c. will still be far behind other cities including columbus memphis and phoenix places with comparable emergency call volumes according to ed smith head of the d.c. fire union the city has been in a downward spiral they're overworked or stressed or actually seeking employment in all of the surrounding departments they're being held over time against their wishes so they do a twenty four hour shift and they will be forced to stay another twelve hours. stressing to the max in response to criticism and d.c. fire spokesman denied the downgrades had an impact on the ability to transport patients from the navy yard last week this is the nation's capital we should be the best of the country we need

a lot of resources we have yet to see how effective recent reforms will be but without proper maintenance and stuffing those facing medical emergencies in the nation's capital are left vulnerable in washington just seen under health artsy. on a myriad david see right back here at a. when he walked into the house by half an hour later. our people who are calling nine one one. hundred miles an hour. traffic his car landed and. was a horrible to a beautiful life. if you could have been a max it could happen. here.